Election-rigging probe at Troy reopened after criticism

FULLERTON – School officials say they will reopen an investigation into an election-rigging scandal at Troy High School after critics – including a state lawmaker – attacked their handling of the incident.

The election controversy, which The Register described in a Sunday story, began when a teacher announced as the new student-body president and vice-president two students who had not won the voting. The actual winner of the vice-presidential voting, senior Jacob Bigham, discovered the vote fraud when he used a faculty password to break into the actual voting tallies. He then revealed the fraud to school administrators and the student newspaper.

Bigham was suspended from school for five days, removed from student government, and lost both his current post and the vice-president post he had just won for his senior year. The teacher who school officials say changed the voting results, Jenny Redmond, was allowed to continue teaching the student-government class through the spring semester. A new faculty adviser was appointed for the fall.

Most of the subsequent criticism of the Fullerton Joint Union High School District has centered on the disparity in punishment, with many saying that the teacher should have been punished more severely and that the school has sent the wrong message to students.

"Every public official in the state should be outraged – election fraud is a serious concern," said state Assemblyman Chris Norby, R-Fullerton, a former high school teacher. "They're piling things on this kid, when this (election-rigging) could have been going on for years. This should be about the seriousness of the original offense...It seems the attention here is being diverted away from the election abuse, and put onto the kid who found out about it."

Fullerton high schools Trustee Bob Singer said he was shocked when he first learned of the April 20 election scandal, and remains concerned about whether the school district had responded appropriately.

"I'm not totally convinced yet that the particular responses taken to both the student and employee are appropriate and balanced and match the role that each of them played," Singer said. "The district is and was continuing to address the issues that we (on the school board) had and may still have."

On Friday, the day the Register published its story online, district Superintendent George Giokaris said he was reopening the investigation to focus on "additional information" he had recently learned about the student. School officials and Bigham agree that he sent Redmond a series of "highly inappropriate" text messages after the April 20 election. Giokaris said the punishment handed to Bigham was in part because of those texts. But he added that he did not know about the texts until last week.

Late Monday, Giokaris changed course, saying the reopened investigation would look at the "totality" of the events and how Troy and district officials responded to them.

"We have a responsibility to review the whole matter," Giokaris said. "It will include the steps taken regarding the teacher. We're going to be very thoughtful, very pragmatic, very respectful of all involved, and determine if the steps that were taken were appropriate."

Redmond has refused to discuss the incident with The Register and said Tuesday she had no comment.

DISTRICT'S ACTIONS DEFENDED

Ann Gread, immediate past president of Troy's Parent Teacher Student Association, said she felt the district's initial investigation and actions on the matter were "appropriate and adequate." She questioned why the district was reopening the investigation three months after the election, although she emphasized she was speaking for herself, not the PTSA.

"The adviser was wrong and her resignation was accepted, and the student was incredibly wrong – which really disturbed me greatly – and the student was disciplined," said Gread, a Fullerton resident with two children. "I have complete and utter faith in the school and the school district that they investigated the situation and took action as required."

Gread also defended the district's decision to allow Redmond to keep teaching the Associated Student Body leadership class for the remainder of the school year.

"It didn't bother me that she continued to teach the class," Gread said. "I think she's an excellent teacher."

Not everyone sees it that way.

George P. Wright, chairman of Santa Ana College's criminal justice department, suggested in a letter to the Register that Redmond had made a "calculated decision" to rig the election, and that Principal Margaret Buchan was "forced by public exposure to slap her wrist" after Redmond was caught.

"Troy student Jacob Bigham is intelligent, resourceful and sophisticated enough to catch the cheater, and the school punishes him. He should be given a letter of commendation," Wright said in his letter, published Tuesday. "Had Bigham not hacked into the school computer, the unethical, if not illegal, behavior by Redmond would have gone undetected. ... We need more Bighams and fewer Redmonds and Buchans."

But Amanda Gieser, a teacher at neighboring Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, said those who were casting judgment on the matter did not have all the facts.

"Jenny will never be able to legally explain why the action was taken because it involves private confidential student information," said Gieser, who is Redmond's friend. "Because people have incomplete information, people who don't know her are making accusations against her, sending her harassing emails and threatening her. It saddens me people are reading the article and blogs that are popping up online and assuming that simply because it's in print, it's fact. They're not acknowledging there's nothing from the other side and there's nothing she can say if she wants to continue teaching."

PARENTS SUPPORTIVE

Bigham's father, David, said he and Jacob's mother stood by their son during the initial investigation in April, and would continue to support him.

"I don't agree with what my son did (to obtain the election results) – I'm embarrassed and mad about that, and he was reprimanded at home and at school," said David Bigham, a Brea resident. "But I stand by him 100 percent for having the courage to come forward. It was not just for himself; it was for the other students."

Bigham, an outspoken teen who was in his second year serving on ASB, said he and other students had long been suspicious Redmond was tampering with election results.

During election week in April, Bigham said he overheard a conversation between an administrator and a computer technician in which the technician revealed the default password that teachers use to access Troy's Internet-based record-keeping system, Illuminate.

The day after ballots were cast, Bigham – eager to see the election results – decided to use the default password to try logging into Redmond's account from his home computer, he said. He successfully accessed the election tallies, and learned he and ASB presidential candidate Ryan Daliwal had easily won their seats. He also captured a digital screenshot of the results.

Two days later, election results were announced at a lunchtime ASB ceremony; Redmond handed over envelopes containing the results. Daliwal's opponent was announced as ASB president, and the third-place finisher for the ASB vice presidency was declared the winner of that seat.

Bigham then took a copy of the actual results to the school principal and confessed to using the faculty password.

After much deliberation, Troy administrators resolved the winners issue by allowing Daliwal to assume Troy's top student post this fall.

Bigham, who had won the ASB vice presidency, was barred from taking office; second-place finisher Taylor Kang will be ASB vice president for 2012-13.

The students initially declared the winners were given appointed positions on ASB.

ASB PRESIDENT WEIGHS IN

Troy's incoming ASB president, who is traveling abroad this summer, said what Redmond did was wrong, but in an email offered a partial defense of his former adviser, saying she may have selected his opponent as ASB president because she didn't feel he was qualified to lead the student body.

"I understand why she did what she did," Daliwal, 17, said in an email from India. "I wasn't always dedicated that year and due to personal problems, I wasn't always putting my best foot forward, a problem I have since then solved. So in a way I understand her actions but at the same time I think they were inappropriate."

Bigham noted that he, too, had experienced "personal problems" during his junior year, including in the months leading up to the April 20 election, and that his grades had slipped as a result.

Bigham said those factors could explain why Redmond hadn't awarded him the office he won, but he emphasized they didn't explain why she picked the third-place finisher over the second-place finisher for ASB vice president.

"The fact that it was the third-place winner suggests she was giving it to someone she wanted it to go to," Bigham said. "The logical thing would have been to give it to the second runner-up."

Norby, the state lawmaker, said he is exploring whether to introduce state legislation next year clarifying that election-rigging is a serious offense even at the high school level.

"It has to be made very clear that monkeying with any election is a violation of the law," Norby said.